Among the conventionally-known side vehicle body structures is one disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature 1, in which a suspension tower reinforcement member supporting an upper portion of a damper is mounted on a baggage-compartment-side surface of a wheel house (suspension tower section) disposed over a road wheel and in which a C pillar section extends upward from an upper portion of the suspension tower reinforcement member and an upper portion of the wheel house, overlapping the upper portion of the suspension tower reinforcement member, to a roof of the vehicle. Further, in the side vehicle body structure disclosed in Patent Literature 1, an upper connection gusset and a lower gusset extend from above the damper to a rear gate opening section, and thus, a rear collision load can be dispersed to upper portions of the vehicle body.
However, the side vehicle body structure disclosed in Patent Literature 1 requires an increased number of component parts and thus increases the weight of the vehicle body, although it can achieve increased strengths at and around the gate opening section, C pillar section and suspension tower reinforcement member. Further, because a first closed-sectional shape is defined over the wheel house (part of the suspension tower section) in conjunction with the suspension tower reinforcement member and also a second closed-sectional shape is defined in upwardly spaced-apart relation to the first closed-sectional shape as shown in FIG. 3 of the patent literature, an upthrust load can concentrate on a portion between the first and second closed-sectional shapes and thus that portion may undesirably lack rigidity and strength.